JULY 26, 2007

Spyker confirms Yamamoto

As we exclusively predicted yesterday morning, the Spyker F1 team has announced that Sakon Yamamoto will partner Adrian Sutil for the remaining races of this year's World Championship.

The 25-year-old Japanese driver made his F1 debut with the team - in its Jordan days - back in 2005 and then moved on to Super Aguri where he was test driver last year before taking over from as a race driver for the last seven races. Unable to secure a race drive for 2007 Yamamoto stayed on as nominal test driver for Super Aguri and embarked on a season of GP2 with BCN Competicion.

"Sakon is one of the most promising young Japanese drivers who showed potential in the races he contested in 2006 and I think he and Adrian will be a complimentary pairing," said team principal Colin Kolles. "Sakon's experience of the circuits we visit in the second half of the season will be a big advantage to us as we move forward."

His chequebook may also help the team to meet its financial commitments with the deal rumoured to be worth something in the region of $15m.